The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1887-08-31
H1pwEL1.. THE FoRoER.
Detective PfnkerSon's story of His Crime,
Pursuit aud Arrest.
iMinnean olis Tribunal


q good deal of romance connected with
BIdWell, and that sister of his who, is
seems, effected his release, has been in my
Office in Chicago hundreds and hundreds
of times on her brothers acc ount to have
Us use our influence with the British
authorities. He was an educated fellow,
shsrp and shrewd, and conseo uently one
of the most accomplished and dangerous
criminals at that time in America. His
name is Austin Byron Bidwell, and he has
brother named George. He was born
and raised in Adrian, Mich, and now is
about forty years of age. In 1872 the
Third National Bank of Baltimore was
robbed of nearly 81 600, 900, and the clse
was given to us to work 10. 1 took the
esse in hand and begun work by shadow
ing a woman named Chapman, wife of the
notorious bank robSer, Joe Chapman.
whom / supposed at the time was
implicated in the robbery, and
thought perhaps she would in some
wsy communicate with her husband,
whom had every season to believe was
in England. / finally got over to London,
ard one day, while walking about the city
tracing some bank notes, L casually stepped
into RusSell's tailor shop on the Strand,
and there. right before my eyes, stood
Austin Bldwell and Joe Chapman. In
spector Share, OF the Scotland Yards. and
| watched them for some time, and finally
ii
| indirectly, If at all, connected with the
great Baltimore robbery. I was at that
time making my reports to Messrs. Frsch-
| field, of the Bank of Eogland, and | took
especial pains to explain to them the i'm
portsnce of keeping an eye on the two
! men. They merely pooh-poohed the idea
| thst these men could do anything, saying
| that banking in England was done on
| different system than in America, 50 let
the matter rest.
'In the meantime we had caught the
| Baltimore bank robbers, and in March,
1878, l returned to America. A short
time after my arrival / received a cable
gram from London saying that the Bank
of England had been GefTauded OF nearly
| 81 00O, eco by none other than Austin Bid
well and pal OF bis named Mcdonnell.
Another cablegram stated that Mcdonnell
vas en- route for New York ia the steamer
| Tburingia; that she would arrive in port
| in few days, and that Bidwell was at
| Santa Andre, Spain, and was about to sail
| for Mexico, and would stop at Havana,
CUBA. Being well acquainted with Bid
| we'll / started off myself to intercept him,
and made bee line for florida.
cat Cedar Keys secured a cattle ship
4 and we sailed for Havana, and as good luck
would have it, we sailed past the very ship
| that had Bidwell on board while rounding
stepped off the vessel, and there being no
| extradition treaty then between Cuba aud
/ England, the police authorities would not
| lock him up, but merely kept hun at their
| station. Through bribery he escaped and
| [ had my work TO do over sgain. Securing
Spanish interpreter / started out and
| finally located him at a Spanish town
called Marenow, about forty miles
back with me to that plaae,
| BE sgain endeavored to bribe the
| mau l had to guard him by offering him a
| United States bond for 81 ,0G0, but the m IN
luckily did not RECOGNIZES the value of it
| and he failed. l staid in Havana until
| June awaiting the arrival of the English
| detectives, when he was taken 20 England.
| While in Cuba intercepted q letter di-
| rected to Bidweu at Havana which was
| written in cipher. l made part of the
| cipher out and immed iately cabled to New
| York to have them secure q trunk ad-
| dressed to Capt. George Matthews that was
| at some European express Office, In Aus
l tin & Baldwin's New York Express office
| my brother Robert found the trunk, aud
| opening it found 365 $1,000 United States
| bonds wrapped up in an old suit of
/ clothes. A woman called for it, and my
! brother Swallowed Ler and found that she
! was the wife Of the notorious Phil. Has
grave. The letter was written by George
|. Bowel, who was at Edinburg at the time,
/ sud who mas arrested there a short time
/ af'erwsrd. All the Others implicated in
the robbery were arrested atterward. Nc
| Donnen was arrested in New York and
| Edwin Noyes Hill in London, so with the
two Bidweu brothers We had the whole lot
| csged.
/ Now it seems when they first went to
| London they went under the name of Hor-
ton & Co, and were there ostensibly for
| the purpose of establishing large shops to
manufacture Pullman cars to operate on
English roads. They Brought $40, 900 with
them and established q credit at the West
/ eTn Branch of the Bank of England. To
begin operations they went 10 Brussels and
secured number of bills of exchange,
which they successfully counterfeited aud
| passed on the bank. The next they want
| ed was a Rothschilds' bill of exchange,
which was little difficult to get. At last
an opportunity offered itself. Bidwell
was travelling between Calais aud
Paris on the railroad which happen
ed to belong to the Rothscnilds
| when an accident occurred and
he was brui. Il mp considerably. Patching
| up his face with plasters, be bobbled into
R0tbtchild's Office and asked for the Baron.
he stated that he had been i0jured on
| their road, but instead of com planning he
merely wanted q bill OF exchange for q
L large mOueY L0aL ne laQ with
him. This he secured. aud after securing
bin of exchange of Bledenstein, their
plans were fully perfected aud their opera
tons began. They inserted an advertise
ment in one OF the London papers for a
private 81 secretary, aud had one of their
own pals (the Edwin Noyes Hill that /
stated was arrested in London) to answer
the advertisement In the presence OF some
big bank official when they engaged him.
Thtir plan was this: After couu-
teIfeiiing number of the various
Is of exchange they would in the morn
g Sc nd Hill to the bank to cash them
They would then watch outside, and II
Hill came out alone everything was al
right, but If be came out with a stranger il
was signal that everything was discov
cred. Things went on smoothly. and they
nsd already secured nearly 81, 000, 900,
when the fraud was discovered one day by
there being no date on one of BieGenstein 6
bills of exchange. The sequel is as have
already told you. Hill was srrested in
London. Austin Bidwell IN Havana, George
Bidwell In Edinburgh, and Mcdonnell in
New York. They were all sentenced to
life imprisonment aud now / see that
Austin Bidwell is at last pardoned and re-
leased Another episode in Bidwell's life
il the one that gives the romantic coloring
to it. While in London he became infat-
uated with and married BIZ English Colon
els daughter, who, there is no doubt,
loved him dearly, and believed him to be